Friday, December 8, 2017

Eric Pickles General Election Review

At the Conservative
Party Conference whenever criticism was raised about the Tories performance in
the General Election we were told “Don’t worry it is all covered in the
“Pickles Review”. So was it?

First of all the review
did not go into any deep analysis as to the conduct of the election unlike the
Conservativehome review. It came up
with 126 recommendations 90% of which were froth and hope. Who will take responsibility for seeing the
implementation of these recommendations?
In response to this question by a member of the Party Board, Pickles
answer was “The Party Board” Don’t hold
your breath when you see the entire review kicked into the long grass. So what were the most important recommendations?

3 A Manifesto Committee should be
established and, in Government, consist of the Prime Minister, Chancellor of
the Exchequer, Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary, Party Chairman/Chief
Executive, Chief Whip and up to three others appointed by the Prime Minister. In opposition it should consist of the
equivalent office holders.

This
is an improvement on what happened in the Election but where is the input from
the 1922 Committee or the voluntary party?
They can make suggestions but no say in the final draft.

29 As is the usual practice, the Prime
Minister/Leader shall appoint the Party Chairman and the Party Board shall
appoint the Party’s Chief Executive/Chief Operating Officer.

In
a modern democratic Party fit for the 21st Century the Party
Chairman should be elected by and accountable to the Party membership.

30 The Party Chairman shall be in charge of
all election campaigns. Part of that
function can be delegated (e.g. local government elections, the day to day
conduct of a General Election campaign and by elections).

Until
this last election we always thought the Chairman was in charge including the
day to day conduct of the campaign.

31 The Party Chairman may appoint, after
consulting the Party’s Chief Executive, a Party professional(s)/consultant(s)
to run any part or the whole of the campaign.
Notice of the appointment shall be given in writing by the Party
Chairman to the Prime Minister/Leader of the Party, the Chairman of the 1922
committee and the elected Chairman of the National Convention.

If
Conservative Campaign Headquarters is incapable of running a campaign what is
the point of it? Consultants walk away
with a fat fee and are totally unaccountable for the result. The £4.5 million spent on consultants in the
2017 General Election would have been better spent on the training and
employment of professional agents in the constituencies.

52 The Party should appoint a Vice-Chairman
for Diverse Communities, and should consider that person being represented on
the Party Board. The Vice-Chairman for
diverse Communities should work with the Outreach Department to contact the
different communities that will keep the Party nationally and locally in touch.

Who
is “The Party” which is going to do the appointing? Who is this Vice-Chairman accountable
to? How long is the appointment? Why should they be on the Party Board?

56 The Party should actively encourage
parliamentary and council candidates from diverse communities, and ensure
through our training programmes that such potential candidates get priority.

Why
should these candidates get priority and who decides on the priority? Merit should be the criteria for candidate
selection.

66 Training and development should become a
key function of CCHQ. The Head of
Training should be a Director level appointment, and supported by a team to
deliver on training along with the Vice-Chairman of Training.

Who
is the Vice-Chairman of Training? Who
is he/she accountable to? Why do we
need all these unelected, unaccountable Vice-Chairmen? Are these just jobs for the boys?

70 The Party will establish a career path
for long-term field employment within the Conservative Party, which will
include a professional qualification in electoral law, regular training, and
programmes in campaigning and personal development.

At
last a sensible proposal, but didn’t we use to have this? Should this not be part of the remit of the
Head of Training?

The General Election
showed that there is a clear campaigning deficiency in many parts of the
country which needs to be urgently addressed.
Put simply the Party needs to rapidly upscale its presence on the ground
with more members and volunteers involved in campaigning both between and at
election time. Priority should be given
to target seats, both attack and defence.

To be a viable
campaigning force our activist base must become more balanced in age grouping,
attracting new and younger members who are both engaged and trained in election
activity.

So
what are they going to do about this?
Let’s see!

105 The Party needs to better value
volunteers, and a successor to Team 2015 needs to be developed by CCHQ and put
in place by 2018 local elections. This
should include Head of Volunteer Mobilisation with authority to implement the
research on what drives people to join, get and stay involved with the party.

What
does “better value volunteers” mean?
We need a successor to Team 2015, but this is just a sticking plaster
rather than a cure for the problem. The
2018 local elections are in 6 months time so what has been done to get this
implemented?

106 CCHQ in conjunction with the Voluntary
Party, to launch a volunteer and membership drive, backed up with research, on
what drives people to join, get and stay involved in Party politics.

Absolutely
necessary, but what are you going to offer to new members – no rights, no
involvement in the running of the Party organisation, no involvement in
determining policy, no democratic accountability – just the same old deference
that has failed abysmally.

107 Associations to be offered a capacity
assessment by the Head of Volunteer Mobilisation appointed under recommendation
105, and to jointly agree phased and realistic targets for volunteer and
activist recruitment. An incentive
scheme should be agreed to strengthen the partnership between CCHQ and local
Associations.

With
over 300 Constituency Associations with less than 100 members and less than 10
activists what kind of target are you going to set? What kind of “incentive scheme” to
“strengthen the partnership between CCHQ and local Associations”? The only one that would work is to make
those responsible for CCHQ democratically accountable to the party members.

108 The
Party Board should commission an annual report from every seat on the levels of
volunteers, activists and resources. The Board shall receive support from CCHQ to
produce this report where it is needed.

The
question is “What will they do about it?

109 The implementation of central
administration of party membership must remain a priority and this must be
supported by a sufficiently resourced Membership Department at CCHQ.

We
have been talking about this for years.
When will it happen and will it be properly linked with the Constituency
Associations?

So
there we are. NERO fiddles at CCHQ
whilst the Party flows down the Thames.
What a tragedy!

About Me

• In 1995 wrote a Paper for the Bow Group – “The Conservative Party for the 21st Century” proposing a Party Constitution. - introduced in 1998.
Author: “Our Fight for Democracy” – a history of democracy in the United Kingdom.
MEDIA: TV and radio appearances include “Newsnight”, “Today”, “World at One”, “World Tonight”, “News 24” etc.